I Survived the First Week....

and I'm sure glad it's the weekend. Yesterday was a busy day of weeding here. My hands are so sore from pulling 2-3' tall weeds. We spent the whole morning in the high tunnel, getting rid of the weeds. Here is the "after" picture. From right to left we have strawberries, swiss chard, melons and cantalopes. Picture the rows in between with tall weeds that were really stubborn and hard to pull out. In a high tunnel, you plant directly into the ground and there is no additional heat source. It allows you to extend the growing season for veggies and fruit. The far left side of the high tunnel will be planted next week for the winter CSA program. Not sure what we're planting but it's ready to go.

Owie !! Fingers are swollen (must be all those muscles I haven't used in a while)

Exterior view of High tunnel

Wednesday was CSA day. We had produce to pick in the morning (raspberries and blackberries) and then after lunch the final push to get everything cleaned and ready to pack by 2:00. Each person's "share" is packed in a cloth bag that they return to us the following week. They are given two so we always have one to pack in. The heaviest items are placed in the bottom of the bag and the lighter, more fragile items are put on top. This week's items were potatoes, pears, onions, tomatoes, parsley, cilantro, basil, peppers. Some people got cucs, green beans, blackberries or raspberries, eggs, jalepeno peppers or anaheims (not hot but long and pointy), or eggplant. For items that are just coming on, we have to rotate between who gets them when there isn't enough for everybody. It's a crazy system to figure out for Ann (the lady in charge right now). We have so many tomatoes right now. I've picked them twice and it's sad to see that the brandywine breed does not hold up well to pests. You reach in to grab a huge, beautiful tomato and it will be mush and half eaten or half rotten. That is not a particularly great feeling.....Yuck !  We have yellow ones, romas, brandywine, several different cherry tomatoes (one that has the coloring of a brandywine and is delicious) and several other red ones that I don't know the names of. Yesterday I worked with Ann to take some of the 2nds and prep them for drying. You cut them in even slices, soak in Fruit Fresh and place on the drying racks. They go into a large Cabela dryer and stay there for 23 hours. I had to go down last night and rotate the racks cause there are hot spots in the dryer. I'll go down at 2 and see if they are done and if they are, they get removed from the racks and placed in a glass jar. It's a great way to preserve them for winter use.

The sisters take some of the berries that are too mushy to put in containers and turn them into jam or jelly to give out to the CSA members. I think we have enough now that everyone will get a jar of jelly next week. On Tuesday, Ann showed the other interns how to make chimichurri sauce and that was given out on CSA day. It's made with parsley, red pepper flakes, onion, etc and is a great condiment for steak or other meats. I didn't work on that since I needed to unpack and get settled into my room.

Been trying to get out most days to walk...here are pics of what I see on my route...

Alpaca Barn

My thoughts exactly....

Grotto...

This morning I spent more time walking in the cemetery. In the center are the graves of three men and I was a little dumbfounded why, in a place that is for and run by women, there are these graves of men. Then it dawned on me....Women can't be priests. These are the men who have been the priests over the years. Graves from the 1840's to current times are here and there is a memorial to the sisters who are buried in other countries. Keep in mind that a lot of work, by the sisters of Providence is done in Taiwan, China, and other countries so it only makes sense that some who have made it their life's work to work there would also want to be laid to rest there.

"Providing shelter to all"(see if you can see the mud wasp nests)

This is one of my favorite spots. I call it the meditation maze....I know there's a more formal name for it but I don't recall what it is. This is where I have my chat with the universe each morning and is a great place to center yourself for the day ahead. The twisting and turning paths all lead to the center, where the bench is. The paths are lined with ground up rubber so it's easy on the legs. It's a really neat place and really close to Owens Hall, where my room is. It's usually the last stop on my walk before heading back to fix breakfast.




Part off Equine Studies at the college here

Our portable chicken coop. There is a timer on the ramp door that pulls it up when it approaches night so the chickens are safe. They learn very quickly when curfew is.

These are the sweet potatoes we weeded yesterday. In organic farming methods, since you don't use chemicals to control weeds, many times ground cover is planted. The sweet potatoes are in the hilled rows and in between is planted hairy vetch, clover and something else. When we weeded, we lay it in between the rows so it will decompose and put nitrogen back into the soil. It was a pretty dense jungle before we weeded. Many of the sweet potato vines were eaten by the deer, hence the spotty planting.
Orchard
Ground Cover at Work

Greenhouse

Another high tunnel under construction for a winter crop.

Beautiful steeple on church here at Sisters of Providence

Everyone is so nice here. The sisters are so cool. I just came from having lunch in the Owens Hall cafeteria and the sisters were talking about an event going on nearby and who was going to go on the zipline. Any of the stereotypes that one might have about nuns certainly doesn't apply to most of the ones I've met here. I did see a sister at lunch who wore the head covering of a habit but I think she is part of a group that is here for a retreat. Most of the sisters here are in t-shirts and jeans or shorts and are talking about horse racing, rollercoasters and NASCAR. Neat bunch of ladies !

Since this is a facility that values the environment and all of God's creatures, most people abide by the "No Kill" policy when it comes to a critter found in the garden or things that we pick. I'm fine with flicking a slug off a tomato and put the wolly worm aside that is crawling up the clover. The other day I was washing heads of cabbage and there was a really big hairy brown spider that was on one of the heads. I washed him off the head only to watch him run around the bottom of the sink and I kept thinking about the No Kill policy. I didn't kill him but I sure hope he brought a canoe with him cause he's gonna need it cause I "escorted" him down the drain. I'll say a little prayer for him tomorrow while I'm walking the meditation maze.

The Start of My Internship - Getting Settled In

We left Chambersburg Sunday morning around 7:30 a.m., headed for Terra Haute, Indiana. It was a much quicker drive than we had anticipated....we arrived around 5:30 p.m. that same day. We're so used to taking longer, driving the motorhome, that driving the car makes much shorter work of a trip like this. Since White Violet Center wasn't expecting me until Tuesday, I shot off an e-mail Sunday night that we had arrived in town and were spending the night at a Day's Inn nearby. It turned out that Monday was a better day for me to arrive since Robyn had several appointments on Tuesday that would have conflicted with getting my orientation done.
I did some paperwork, Robyn gave Linda and I a tour of the facilities. I got my TB test and I'll go back tomorrow afternoon to have it read (it isn't doing anything...it actually disappeared from my arm). My room wasn't ready for me to move into in Owens Hall so they let us stay in one of the guest houses. What a gorgeous house it is and it was made from scrap materials. The hardwood floors are made from the wood in the bottom of tractor trailer floors. Odds and ends pieced together to make a beautiful cottage and it sits near a small lake. The house to the right of us is of straw bale construction so the walls are really thick but it makes for an excellent insulator. There was another cottage to the left of us but I'm not sure of any of the specifics on that one. We had a very pleasant evening in the house.
I spent yesterday afternoon helping to pick tomatoes cleaning dirt from potatoes that had been dug. This morning I started out picking green beans and purple ones too but got called away about 10:30 to go do my room orientation with Sister Martha. Linda and I moved all of my stuff into my room. My room is roughly 10' x 17'. As you might be able to see in the picture I have a TV, twin size bed, desk, big metal armoire with lots of storage space inside, a dresser, a nice recliner and another shelving unit.



Just down the hall is a large kitchen with everything I could possible need to cook with. This kitchen is only for the interns use so since there's three of us here...we each get a shelf in the refrigerator for our food and there is ample cupboard space for dry goods, although for right now I've got my stored in the armoire unit in my room.
There is super fast WiFi here, so it will be easy to keep up with blogging and surfing the internet. The campus is really huge and very beautiful, with lots of walking and meditation paths.
We finished up moving me into my room, around lunchtime. Right after lunch Linda left to start home. This afternoon I picked pears and cleaned tomatoes and potatoes in preparation for CSA pickups tomorrow. There are about 70 members in their CSA program with three locations where they can get their weekly allotment of veggies and fruit. From what everyone says, Wednesdays are crazy days here.


Fresh Basil....some was picked and dried. 



There are two other interns here right now...Bree and Rusty. I went with Bree last night to tend to the alpacas. She splits her week between gardening and the alpacas. We checked how much hay and fresh water they had. Bree hooked up the sprinkler for them so they could cool off. Boy, did they like that ! The dominant alpacas would spit and push the others away. Sometimes one would lay down on top of the sprinkler so the others wouldn't get any of the water. They were really cute to watch and each one really seems to have its own personality.
Everyone is super nice and helpful. Sister Maureen (Sister Mo) is really cool...she's the director of White Violet Center. Linda helped her this morning while she was waiting for my room to be ready (the wait for my room was due to it needing a deep clean and the floor needed to be waxed). Linda got to work with some of the skeins of yarn that had arrived from the processor. They send the fiber to an outside processor to be turned into clean yarn.
Well, you're up to date on my two days here. More later...
Blogger Labels: Internship,Terra,Haute,Indiana,White Violet Center,

Linda B's home...

On Wednesday we moved the rig from my brother's place down to Chambersburg to the house where B grew up. Since the last time we've been there, they have widened the road at the back of the property (Brumbaugh St) and installed sidewalks and curbs along the street. We were a little worried about getting into the lot, since the curb cuts don't line up with the neighbor across the street and wasn't sure if the cut would be wide enough. As it worked out, I could pull into the neighbor's driveway and back out into the street and get lined up square with this lot, since the street is so wide. It was perfect AND wide enough that we didn't have to go up over a curb with a dually. One of the leveling jacks scraped a little coming up over the sidewalk but it was ok. We got set up and tried to think of all the variables of where to locate her, since she'll be here till the end of February....which means contending with snow.

We did have to attach a rope to one of the pine tree limbs and Linda pulled it back so I could back in past the trees without it scraping down the side of the rig. Here she is all set up. From noon on she gets shade so it stays cool in the rig right now. You can see the home on the right where she grew up. This is the back of the property.

 

 

 

 

 

Here's looking from the corner of the house to the street out front(Stouffer Ave). Lots of shade trees on the property which makes for a pretty setting. She has a market within walking distance and a 24 hour diner too. She's all set up with water and 20 amp power. In the past, if we needed our black tanked dumped, we can call a local company to come by but she has the house so close that she'll probably just use the house for showers and bathroom use. This will be Home Sweet Home for the next six months. I anticipate that come winter, she'll get the rig winterized and move into the house.

I'm finishing up my packing and we're getting ready to head out Sunday morning for Indiana. I'm excited to learn new things and work with the alpacas, bees, fiber and organic gardens. Lots of neat things to see and do. Will post on a regular basis from White Violet Center when I get there....

Blogger Labels: Chambersburg, Brumbaugh,White Violet Center,

Out Here in Nature

I warned you that my posts would be sporadic (instead of erratic although it might seem that way to some of you). I've been busy at mom's working on projects around her place. Dad passed away 26 years ago so things haven't had the attention in recent years that they should have had so I'm trying to get things caught up to hold up for mom for a while. As I mentioned in the last post, I painted all of her porches and railings. I've also painted her garage and sealed the crack in the roof that was rotting out a corner of the front wall. My brother and I re-sided one of her sheds and I painted it. The other shed also needs new walls so Jim needs to get some more 4' x 12' sheets of OSB so we can do that one too.

In the most recent AARP magazine there was a recipe for a "natural" weed killer. Linda also looked on-line and found variations of the same recipe so I weed whacked the front bank, that runs the width of her property and applied this mixture:

1 gallon white vinegar + 1 c. salt + 2 TB Dawn detergent...mix and apply with garden sprayer.

I've applied almost 7 gallons of this around her sheds, on the bank, etc. Within about two hours the vegetation is dead. My brother applied this mixture in his bee yards and Round-up on some other areas(hiss boo....I hate that company for what it's doing to agriculture) so it will be interesting to see how long each lasts. The vinegar is supposed to make the soil inhospitable to any future plant life but I find that hard to believe (unless you REALLY soaked the ground with it). It certainly is a cheap mixture per gallon with a gallon of vinegar only costing me $2.38 and I would rather see the use of this as opposed to Round Up or some other herbicide.

Been working in the bee yard with Jim a few times to get me used to what I might experience when I'm at White Violet Center. Here is Jim pointing out the Queen bee on a frame from a hive. I thought I'd be nervous working with the bees but I really enjoy it. As Jim told me, they pick up on your movements and the fact that you are there to care for them. Move slowly and be careful not to squish them when putting the frames back in and they usually get out of your way. You also can tell a lot about the state of a hive by listening to the bees in each one. If they are agitated, the hive will be really noisy and louder than one that is more content. During the week when the temps were really hot here (in the 90's for a week), there were times when the the hives had "beards" on them. The bees hang out, outside the hive, to stay cooler. It's interesting to learn about the different things they do and why they do them.

 

 

 

Bee Beards

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me Giving Sugar Water to the Bees

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Been working with mom on making candy and jams/jellies. We've made currant jelly (with berries from her bushes), strawberry jam and jalapeño spread. Friday was mom's 88th birthday so she got the day off. She went with my sister to the casino for the day. Tomorrow we need to make another batch of jalapeño spread. She is gearing up for show season, which starts at the end of August. My brother gave her the show schedule so now we're trying to get enough jams and jellies ready for him to take there to sell. I've learned how to make the labels for her on the computer. There is an ingredient label that has to go on the back of each jar and then the identification label on the front. It's been a lot of fun working with my mom on these things. She says this is her last year for making them so trying to learn all I can from her while she's still doing it.

Linda B is with her sister and her family this weekend, at Raystown Lake. She's been running non-stop ever since we got home. Last week she was at her son's and then those grand kids came up to camp with us at Bucktail Campground, just about 10 miles from mom's place. We moved the rig from my brother's on Tuesday afternoon and brought it back to my brother's Friday morning. The kids had a ball on all the rides that they have at Bucktail. For about $62/night, everything is included. They have a carousel, train, miniature golf, zip line, 2 story tower with slide, huge playground, pool, etc. It's a great value for families that want to have things to do for the kids. Linda will come back from Raystown next Wednesday and go to her son's place in Wmspt to watch the kids, then bring them up to camp again next weekend. Busy...Busy...

She had a scary thing happen, last weekend, on her way back from her daughter's in Norfolk. She had called me in the morning, when she started driving up, to tell me there was a thumping sound under the car. I told her some things to look at. The next time she called me, around 11:30, she was hysterical and said the driver side rear wheel on the car had fallen off while she was driving through a construction zone. Luckily, there was minimal damage and the tow company fixed it but only after she sat for 6 hours at the garage. They had to replace the rim, lug nuts and bolts and bleed the brakes. Thank goodness she was going slow, through a construction zone, as she wasn't hurt either. Just scared pretty badly ! It still baffles me how the lug nuts would have loosened so badly on that one tire. I always check them with my torque wrench, after having the tires rotated, because I find that they tend to loosen up within a few hundred miles of being changed. I had just checked them not that long ago so it's pretty surprising to me that this happened.

Well I guess that catches you up to present. More jelly making this week for me and more time with the grand kids for Linda. Only a couple of weeks till I leave for White Violet Center. Hope you're enjoying your summer !

Decked Out....

I've been at Mom's for a little over a week and the weather did not cooperate with my first project. I told Mom that I was going to paint her three porches and the railings, when I came home. Mom and Dad moved into this house 27 years ago and the deck surfaces have never been painted so you can imagine how weathered the boards were. Some were in really bad shape. She has a front porch, side porch and a large back deck that was 8' x 20'...a total of 272 sq ft of surface area (not counting the steps). I used the Olympic "Rescue It" product and she picked out a blue color from the 100+ color choices.The railings are painted white. After several days of start and stop, due to rain showers or anticipated showers, I finally finished up on Thursday. Here is the the "after" shot of the big deck. In this picture, I hadn't removed the painter's tape yet from the bottom of the posts but the deck turned out really nice. Mom loves it. Her wood is protected and it will give longevity to it before the boards will need to be replaced. There is also a non-skid finish to the paint so it won't be slippery when it gets wet. I have a little area to do some day on the end of the deck. We had to get a trellis to support her clematis bush so I could get it away from the side of the deck so I can get in there and paint it. Won't take only but a few minutes to take care of.

Porches and railings painted....check.

Time With Mom

Linda and I covered the 2100 miles from Jackson, Wyoming back to Pennsylvania in four short days. We tried to get on the road around 7:00 each morning and pretty much drove until almost dark every day. Long days but it really helped that Linda and I took turns driving every couple of hours. When we got to Lamar, on I-80, we unhooked the car and Linda headed out for her family's July 4th function in New Jersey. I continued on to my brother's place, outside of Mansfield and got the rig set up. Such a great view, overlooking the valley below. He has a 50 amp hook-up in the sugar shack so we're in great shape. I dumped our tanks at the Flying J, in Lamar, and our water tank was already full. We should be fine for the whole 5 weeks I'm here, if the rig stays here that whole time. I take my showers down at my mom's and I'm only at the rig late afternoons till the next morning. Not sure what all of Linda's plans are. She's trying to get time in with the grandkids before they go back to school next month.

I've been busy, helping my mom with stuff around her house. She has a huge yard that she mows and lots of flower beds. It's a lot for anyone to maintain but she's going to be 88 yrs old in a couple weeks and it's especially hard for her to get it all done. I've been trying to paint her three porches and railings but I get chased off by almost daily rain showers. I hope to finish the railings tomorrow and start painting the deck surface on Friday. I bought some of the new Rescue It product that has been advertised on TV. Actually what you've seen is called "Restore" but I learned that PA and NY don't like the formulation of the Restore product (something about the oil based nature of it or some such thing)so it had to be reformulated for here. It's a product that fills large cracks in weathered deck boards and also creates a non-skid surface. Mom picked out a really pretty color so I'm anxious to see it all come together....if it would only stop raining.   :(  I'll post some pictures once it's done. That reminds me that I should take some "before" and "after" pictures so we can see the difference that this paint might make.

Weather has been quite warm but after experiencing 112 degree temps in Utah, it really doesn't feel that warm. It is more humid than out west but my sinuses and skin love it. Tonight it's calling for a chance of severe thunderstorms up until 10 p.m. I hope that is the last batch of rain for a while.

Linda is spending this week with her oldest son in Williamsport, shuttling the grandkids to vacation bible school and activities. Next week she's heading to Virginia Beach to see the other grandkids. Mom has been letting me drive her car, while Linda uses our car to see family. It's worked out great since Mom only lives about three miles from where our rig is...at my brother's place.

Five and a half weeks till I leave for my internship....lots to do until then. No internet here and really sketchy cell service. I had to take my laptop and go over town this morning to get caught up on e-mails. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer weather with family and friends. Make the most of it...before you know it, fall will be here.

Zion and the rest of the story....

When we left Bryce, it was only about 90 minutes to get to Coral Pink Sands State Park near Zion. This is a small, no hook-ups park but really neat cause it's surrounded by coral colored sand dunes. A family, from the Salt Lake City area, happened to wind up in the campsite right behind us. They had also been at Bryce and had wanted to come over and talk to us about our toyhauler cause they have a whole bunch of ATV's that they ride on BLM lands. Well, as luck would have it we showed up again in the same campground as us and we gave them a tour of our rig and chatted with them. Nice people !
The sand is so fine it felt like talcum powder and boy, did it make a mess of our socks and shoes. It got everywhere ! In the sand dunes there is a particular type of beetle that can only be found there but you have to get out when the temps are cool to track one down. On Thursday, when we arrived and Friday they were having really hot weather...temps of 112 degrees so no tracking down any of those beetles. They bury themselves in the sand when it gets hot (can you really blame them).
We got up early and headed to Zion so we could hike while the temps were bearable. We hiked emerald pools, weeping rock and the riverside walk for a ways. Zion is ok but Arches and Canyonlands are my favorite places so far. I actually like the entry area into Zion, with all of the slickrock, better than I do inside the park itself.


As we were driving through the winding road, into Zion, a large deer was trotting up the road. With sheer, rock walls on both sides of him, he had no where to go but up the road. When he got to an area where he could climb up, he scrambled up into the brush.




Emerald pools







Weeping Rock









Due to the high temps, and the fact that we didn't have any hook-ups, we decided to leave the state park Friday afternoon. We started making our way up to Jackson, WY. In Utah, we stopped at an RV park, in Nephi, UT for the night and then went to a really neat diner the next morning, just up the road. It's called The One Man Band Diner and is a local franchise. As the name implies, one person does it all. Once you decide what you want to eat, you pick up the phone and give your order to the cook/cashier/dishwasher. He cooks up a fabulous meal for you that are super cheap and calls you up to get it. He also rings you out at the cash register and clears your table and washes the dishes when you leave. He's a One Man Band ! If you get near one of these, while passing through Utah, check them out. There was also a huge parking lot that was perfect for our rig. Easy in - easy out.
We stayed Saturday night at Star Valley Resort in Thayne and we took Becky to see the fresh water geyser in nearby Afton. It was good to see the owner and staff there. This is one of the parks that we usually work but have given up so that we're able to get back east sooner. They are awesome people and they run a beautiful park.
Sunday morning I drove Becky up to Moran Junction (90 minutes from Thayne) so she could meet up with her friend Chris for a day of hiking in Yellowstone. Since we weren't able to check into our park, in Jackson, until noontime...we wanted her to get in a day of sightseeing while we got a day of rest in. Linda and I aren't used to getting up at 5 or 5:30 each morning and hiking several miles every day. Us old folks were tuckered out (and my feet were in the pre-blister mode). After dropping her off, I headed to Jackson and did laundry while I waited for Linda to arrive. She got in and got the rig settled just as the laundry finished up. Later in the afternoon, we went out for a ride on our favorite road through Teton Village into Grand Teton National Park.
Saw this fella hanging out, having a snack, near Teton Village. Saw a few other deer too. Monday was mud pot and geyser day. We drove up to Old Faithful and checked out all the stuff up there. I didn't get my way of getting everyone to get up to see the sun rise on the Tetons but we did get out before it got too hot and got back to Jackson by 4 so Becky and Chris could check out downtown. We had a great meal at Snake River Brewing and called it a day.
Our 12 days with Becky went by way too fast but we had such an amazing time ! The timeline that Linda had planned out was perfect. We had ample time to see everything we wanted to see and didn't feel rushed. We went to 6 national parks in those 12 days. About the only animal that we didn't see was a bear. I got up at 5 this morning to take Becky to the airport in Jackson for her flight back to Boston. As soon as I got back to the campground, Linda and I pulled out and were on the road by 7. Becky's flight was supposed to leave at 7 but she was still sitting there almost 3 hours later, due to a fuel gauge issue. As I write this she is still flying....since she left so late, her connection in Chicago was screwed up so she didn't leave there till 5:05. She will be a tired young lady when she gets home tonight !
Linda and I covered close to 500 miles today....making our way back to Pennsylvania. We are at the Wyoming/Nebraska border, on Interstate 80. We've got about another 1600 miles to go yet so lots of driving ahead for us. We had an amazing vacation with Becky. We had so much fun and saw so many things. It was the trip of a lifetime ! More later on our adventure heading home and our time with friends and family once we get there...